1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable cellular phone having a function of searching for an operational function and a method of searching for an operational function in the portable cellular phone and more particularly to the portable cellular phone having the function of searching for the operational function of performing a focusing search for a desired operational function by combining an icon search with a keyword search and the method for searching for the operational function in the portable cellular phone.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-168350 filed on Jun. 12, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various operational functions of a portable cellular phone increase as it develops and the increase in the operational functions makes it difficult to perform an easy and rapid search for a desired operational function. In a conventional portable cellular phone, for example, a general method for searching for a desired operational function selected from two or more operational functions is known in which a numerical key assigned to a 10-button keypad is input by pressing a function invoking key (so-called “function invoking key+numerical key”). However, this search method requires memorizing of a function setting number (for example, F42 or a like), which causes a burdensome operation. To enter a function setting number, repeated pressing of a 10-button keypad many times is required, which takes time and also causes a bothersome operation. Therefore, an advent of a portable cellular phone being capable of performing an easy and rapid search for a desired operational function by a simple operation and of a searching method is expected.
A data display method and its system are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 8-234956 (Third claim to eighth claim, FIGS. 1 to 14) in which data stored in database is searched for based on a key word to be displayed. In this data display method, an icon image and a related background image are stored in a manner in which each of them corresponds to a keyword and the icon image is displayed as an icon and, when data base is searched for with a desired keyword by operating this icon, the keyword is used to display data resulting from the search in which the background image is displayed as a background.
Moreover, a data filing device which is capable of improving operability for registration and searching operations regardless of whether an amount of data is large or small is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 6-332953 (Page 4-8, FIG. 18). The data filing device has a symbol registration searching section that employs a method by which an icon is used and a keyword registration searching section that employs a method by which a keyword is input directly from a keyboard and uses properly either of the above searching sections based on a result from detection, which is performed by the document detecting section, of the number of files already registered and, when the number of files is small, the symbol registration searching section is used and, when the number of files are large, the keyword registration searching section is used.
However, the data search methods disclosed in the above Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. Hei 8-234956 and Hei 6-332953 have a problem. That is, when a focusing search is to be performed using a keyword preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions, if the above methods are used, an easy and rapid search for a desired operational function by a simple operation is difficult. In the data display method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 8-234956, by operating a displayed icon, data stored in database is searched for by using a desired keyword and searched data resulting from the search is displayed using a background image as a background, however, no consideration is given to a focusing search to be done by using a keyword.
Moreover, in the data filing device disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 6-332953, a symbol registration searching section that employs a method by which an icon is used and a keyword registration searching section that employs a method by which a keyword is input directly from a keyboard are provided and any one of searching sections is selected to be driven according to the number of files already registered, however, since the search is performed by the selected searching section, it is impossible to switch the searching section in course of search operations. Therefore, there is no way but continue searching by using the searching section first selected.